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ORATION 



AND 



P0H1E 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE CONVENTION OF THE 



IN THE 



CITY OF WASHINGTON, 



JANUARY 3, 1856. 



(published by order of the fraternity.) 



RICHMOND: 

iRLANE & TEBGUSSON, PUBLISHERS, LAW BUILDING, 

1856, 






(Dratinn 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE CONVENTION OF THE DELTA KAPPA EPSILON 

FRATERNITY, AT CARUSI'S SALOON, WASHINGTON, D. C, 

JANUARY 3, 1856. 

BY 

BEVERLEY R. WELLFORD, JR.. ESQ. 



The trite tradition of the Wandering Jew has formed the 
frequent theme of poesy and fiction. However much we may 
be disposed to regard it as a senseless legend, we are not long- 
in discovering its deep allegorical significance. " Onward — 
right onward — and ever onward till I come," was more than a 
fabulous decree. The poor shoemaker of Jerusalem but indi- 
vidualizes the race. We may clamor for rest, but there is no 
rest for the weary foot. The moral, no less than the natural 
world, is always moving. The point upon which, but yester- 
day, we fastened our expectant eyes as the goal of hope and 
promise, has been already passed and is even now well nigh 
forgotten, while on we hasten with accelerated speed along 
the path of destiny. 

The great fact of steady and continued progress, is not 
merely patent upon every page of history, but meets us in 
our daily walk — amid the high ways and bye ways of active 
life. To the idle schoolboy who, with listless inattention, 
from dread of the birch or the ferule, hastily turns over in 
daily routine the dog-eared leaves of his elemental history, 
it is already as familiar as a household word. Illiterate 
dunces, by mere mechanical effort, are continually, without 
thought and without surprise, producing around us results, 
the mere prediction of which would have staggered the faith 
of the mightiest intellects of even the lately past. And still 
onward and onward rolls the wheel of civilization. 

The past with teeming lessons of wisdom is ours, and the 



b ORATION. 

present is ever contributing to its rich repository of instruc- 
tion. The future is but a step in advance — big with respon- 
sibilities to startle and arouse. We must meet them — and it 
behooves us to gird well our loins and meet them as men — 
intelligently and resolutely. 

There is a divinity that shapes our ends 
Kough hew them how we will. 

Men and communities are but the instruments with which He 
works- out His high and holy purposes. There is a superin- 
tending intelligence who presides over the destinies of earth 
— assigning to each of His creatures a definite part in the 
grand drama of life, to whom and to whom alone we are re- 
sponsible. Though in His unerring wisdom a clear and dis- 
tinct revelation of the path before us is withheld, we are not 
left entirely in the dark. We may, if we will, close our eyes 
to the light without and deafen our ears to the voice within — - 
and thus grope our way in helpless imbecility, but such is not 
our necessity. The God of Providence has elected to estab- 
lish general rules — in which and through which to manifest 
himself to his created intelligences. By a due observance 
and a proper appreciation thereof, we may read and we do 
read, with unerring certainty, much that lies in the future. 
Upon their continued operation the least intelligent predicate 
their most familiar acts. The sun that rose this morning 
will rise again to-morrow, and the husbandman who has sow- 
ed in seed time, will reap in harvest. In the great volume of 
creation are written profounder and abstruser but no less 
unerring laws, to the discovery and development of which in 
the laboratory of the chemist and the study of the philosopher, 
the best energies of the mightiest intellects are wisely devoted. 
Nor are these general laws only confined to outward nature 
and only available in physical problems. There is a philoso- 
phy as profound as that of physics upon which earnest, con- 
scientious study can shed as bright a light. " The proper 
study of mankind is man," and the great problems of social 



ORATION. 7 

progress present an illimitable field for laborious investigation 
and earnest thought. Here, as elsewhere, in the economy of 
creation, general laws are in operation. Historical research 
may and does disclose them — but it demands the most eleva- 
ted faculties of the human intellect. It is no mere holiday 
amusement to trace social phenomena to their legitimate 
causes. Amid the thousand disturbing and counteracting 
influences which are developed in the progress of society, the 
severest mental effort is needed to resolve accurately the due 
relation of cause and effect. But political philosophy may 
not be content with the mere discovery of general laws. To 
apply them, and apply them wisely, is her most delicate — her 
most exalted office. The political empiric irrationally rely- 
ing upon them in season and out of season — and predicting 
at all times and under all circumstances, results which wiser 
men anticipate only in the absence of counteracting influ- 
ences — necessarily brings into disrepute the sublime philosophy 
he professes to exemplify. It is the statesman's province, by 
a comprehensive survey of the present, and a philosophical 
application of known truths to anticipate and value the influ- 
ence of those counteracting causes. The results may not be 
always acceptable — but he may not pander to the prejudices 
of his age or section. If he would retain his integrity, he 
must turn a deaf ear to the seductions of place and power — 
bare his breast for the shafts of ridicule and malice — content 
himself, if need be, to suffer under a load of obloquy and 
aspersion, perhaps contempt, and strong only in the con- 
sciousness of honest, unfaltering purpose, and independent, 
earnest thought, await with unsuspecting confidence the ver- 
dict of posterity, when millions shall rise up to call him 
blessed. In no other position is there a greater demand for 
the loftiest intellectual power and the purest human virtue. 
Humanity can respond but feebly to the call. Few of our 
race possess the requisite intellectual gifts — and of them, 
alas ! how few maintain a uniform uncompromising integrity. 
Poor human nature is frail and prone to fall : and around the 



8 ORATION. 

pathway of earth's gifted ones, the arch enemy ever hovers 
in his most alluring disguise. The men of the present listen 
incredulously aud contemptuously to predictions of the future, 
which do not harmonize with their short sighted expectations, 
and the men of the present are the dispensers of place and 
power. The statesman who could, if he would, fathom futu- 
rity, and anticipate the disasters consequent upon present 
errors, is not unfrequently bribed by the dread of popular 
displeasure and the promise of elevated station, to blind his 
eyes to the revelations of his own intellect, and prove recre- 
ant to the impulses of his own heart. Hence we are prone 
to limit the range of political philosophy — but there is a 
foresight which may be attained by pure, intellectual devel- 
opment, approximating closely in vulgar eyes to prophetic 
inspiration. Not a quarter of a century since, in yonder Sen- 
ate chamber, a warning voice was raised, predicting, in the 
not distant future, results, at the bare suggestion of which 
grave Senators were startled and amused. That voice is 
hushed in death — but in the convulsive struggles of a great 
and distracted people, the realized apprehensions of the 
statesman seer are reverberating around us. The sods of his 
adored and adoring Carolina press lightly on his mouldering 
remains — but time has already vindicated his memory from 
the aspersions of envy, of malice and of ignorance, and even 
now his epitaph may be written. The Muse of History has 
recorded and is recording the almost literal verification of the 
prediction then ridiculed and contemned. 

It is fashionable in our country and among those who ad- 
mire our institutions, to speak of the progress of society as 
a progress to Democracy as an end. Mankind are prone to 
identify things with the names with which they become asso- 
ciated. Thus, under monarchical governments, loyalty is 
deemed the synonyme of virtue, and there is a crazy fanati- 
cism, rife in our country, which would trample upon all that 
is venerable or valuable, under the no less unphilosophical 
delusion that liberty is the equivalent of happiness. The 



ORATION. 9 

progress of civilization has been not to popular government, 
but through popular government, to those ends for which all 
governments were established — not to the diffusion of politi- 
cal rights, but to the diffusion of happiness among the masses. 
Popular government is relatively, not absolutely, good or right. 
That government — be it monarchy, aristocracy or democ- 
racy — is best which best developes the intellect and the heart 
of its people, and under the circumstances, best subserves 
the great end of human happiness. There is a bright, as 
there is a dark side to all governments and to all social insti- 
tutions. The visionary enthusiasts of unhappy France have 
endeavored, over and over again, to accommodate republican 
institutions to the wants of her people, but signal failure has 
been consequent upon every effort. The Declaration of 
American Independence, venerable as it is in historic associ- 
ations, and imposing though it be in the apparent sanction of 
its illustrious signers, is not a fountain of unmixed political 
truth. The men of '76 had little time to indulge in discus- 
sion or speculation upon political abstractions — and it is much 
to be regretted that they had not contented themselves with 
a simple narrative of the actual and practical wrongs and 
Outrages that impelled them to resistance — a narrative, the 
bare recital of which would have vindicated them in the eyes 
of the world. Governments do not "derive their just powers 
from the consent of the governed." It is not " a self-evident 
truth — that all men are created equal :" nor does loyalty to 
American institutions exact the credulous adoption of any 
such unphilosophical absurdities. The most perfect govern- 
ment on earth, recognition of whose authority and loyalty to 
whose precepts is instinctive in the soul, is that in which the 
subject can have no voice in the selection of the ruler. The 
relation is established by the fiat of Omnipotence alone — 
and is so pure and so holy that the great Creator has adopted 
it as the most expressive emblem of the relation in which he 
would reveal himself to his intelligent creatures when he bids 
them address him and adore him as their Father in Heaven. 



10 ORATION. 

We have no right to take the life that God has given — and 
no consent upon our part can vest in government a preroga- 
tive which all history assures us is absolutely essential to the 
protection of society. If the consent of the governed be 
the only rightful source of the just powers of government, 
there can be no legitimate government where there is any 
division of sentiment among the people. Unanimity is essen- 
tial to its authority. A single member of society may with- 
stand the wishes of the mass, and by withholding his assent, 
disarm government of all rightful authority to abridge his 
unlicensed natural freedom. The wild fanaticism which as- 
serts for woman an equality of political right with man and 
would tear her from her heaven-allotted sphere to mingle in 
the turbid waters of political strife, productive as it has been, 
of late years, of disgusting exhibitions of unfeminine impu- 
dence and immodesty, is the legitimate issue of a false politi- 
cal philosophy as man-destroying as it is God-defying. If 
there be a natural right in man to select his own governor 
and to prescribe the limits of his authority, whence comes the 
right of a majority to divest any minority of its God-given 
franchise ? The difficulty may be resolved by but one solution. 
The authority of a majority to control a minority springs — 
whence springs the authority of all government — from the 
ordinance of Him who is the fountain of all order and the 
source of all law. Government is of divine — not of human 
origin ; and it commands in the voice of a God, not of a man 
or a mob. But it has been instituted for the furtherance of 
the same great end, which the individual is enjoined to keep 
steadily in view. Governor and governed are alike fallible — 
subject to the same authority, and neither may be recreant to 
its trust at the command of the other. The doctrine of pas- 
sive obedience finds as little sanction in the reason as in the 
spirit of upright men. The point where obedience should, 
end and resistance begin, may not be exactly defined. Its de- 
termination is the gravest question of individual responsibili- 
ty. Resistance is only justifiable when obedience imperils 



ORATION. 11 

the public weal. To raise the arm of rebellion to redress a 
private injury, is as criminal as to strike it down to perpetuate 
a public wrong. There is a higher law to which both governed 
and governor are amenable : and of its extent an enlightened 
conscience is the only authoritative exponent. Conflicts must 
arise, which may sometimes be decided only by an appeal to 
the God of battles. Be the immediate result as it may, the 
Providence that overrules the destinies of men, will ultimately 
vindicate the right. Transitory success is not a conclusive 
judgment — nor a contemporary generation the final tribunal. 
History has canonized the memory of a John Rogers and a 
Robert Emmet. There is something of the moral sublime, 
that wakes the admiration of the soul in the attitude of him, 
who in the conscientious discharge of duty, boldly defying 
the power of government, and reckless of the penalties of 
unrighteous law, swerves not at its behest from the path of 
right. A felon's doom precedes the martyr's crown. But 
as there is an actual, so there is a counterfeit conscientious- 
ness in withstanding the ordinances of government — and as 
the one displays the noblest virtues — the other vainly affects 
to conceal the basest vices of our kind. There is a race of 
turbulent and designing demagogues who make profit of sim- 
ulated public virtue, ever courting a martyr's fame, but in- 
stinctively avoiding the hazards of a martyr's fate. The 
halter is degraded by the wretch who in a hypocritical pre- 
tence of obedience to a higher power, inflames the passions 
of a quiet people against a benignant government — and to 
gratify an insatiate lust for gold or power, would deluge a 
genial soil in the best blood of thousands of the deluded vic- 
tims of his craft and his hypocrisy. A christian people re- 
cognize the existence and supremacy of a higher law — but 
the plea of that higher law on the part of him who has pur- 
chased place by the most solemn engagement on the Evangely 
of Almighty God, in extenuation and justification of a pre- 
meditated breach of the obligation thus intelligently and de- 



12 ORATION. 

liberately incurred — would have shocked the degraded moral 
sentiment of the court of the Stuarts. 

The Virginia Bill of Rights, penned by one of the wisest 
men of our revolutionary era — second to but one — if indeed 
second to any of the sages of that prolific age — the too little 
known George Mason of G-unston Hall — however obnoxious 
it may be to exception in other respects defines accurately 
the best government as that "which is capable of producing 
the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most 
effectually secured against the danger of mal-administration." 
The powers of government, and the restraints of government 
are the two subjects with which political philosophy has to 
deal. Its powers should be adequate and only adequate to 
its legitimate necessities : and their abuse and misuse should 
be inhibited by active and self executing restraints. No gov- 
ernment ever was established upon strictly a 'priori principles. 
Philosophy is of later date, and the hand of reform may not 
be ruthlessly and successfully laid at the foundation of any 
existing institutions, to inaugurate an entirely new system of 
public policy. In the rudest ages of society, when men are 
more the subjects of force and superstition, than of reason — 
governments have their origin. Civilization ordinarily dawns 
upon a savage people, subject to the unlimited sway of an 
irresponsible despot. The exigencies of savage life demand 
the restraining hand of a strong government — and to some 
rude barbarian, pre-eminent in feats of brutal prowess, the 
imagination of a benighted people is prone to ascribe attri- 
butes of divinity which entitle him and his to the loyalty and 
reverence of their kind. As civilization advances, and men 
become more subject to reason, and their necessities become 
less urgent — " the divinity that hedges in a king," pales before 
the approaching noonday. Gradually, but steadily, society 
encroaches upon his authority. Slowly but surely his powers 
are contracted, and around him imperceptibly and apparently 
undesignedly, rise institutions of attack and defence — threat- 
ening even his still unquestioned domain. The pampered 



ORATION. 13 

despot sleeps quietly, it may be, in imagined security, until 
roused by the call of passion or ambition, lie wakes to find 
himself shorn of half his strength — and within the contract- 
ed circle in which his authority still nominally reigns supreme, 
towering battlements raise high their frowning fronts. For 
the most part, these early encroachments upon prerogative 
are accomplished without a struggle. The administration of 
government, requires the employment of subordinates, and a 
slothful monarch, averse to the harassing cares of annoying 
business, cheerfully deputes the exercise of prerogatives to 
agents upon whom, with a profuse liberality, he showers hon- 
ours and emoluments befitting the representatives of royalty — 
thus unwittingly building up a power in the State, the effi- 
cient advance guard of liberalism and progress. It is curious 
and interesting to wander back amid the dim twilight of tra- 
dition, and in the rude surroundings of a savage court to 
trace the outlines of those venerable institutions with whose 
chequered fortunes and strange vicissitudes, through after 
centuries, the story of human progress is so intimately iden- 
tified. In those early ages, political parties may not very 
apparently develope themselves — but the attentive ear will 
even then catch in the distance the mutterings of the coming 
storm ; and around the rude throne of a savage autocrat, 
amid his unlettered barbarian courtiers, the acute observer 
will occasionally fancy the recognition of a prototype of 
Hampden and of Strafford. The regular and continued or- 
ganization of parties, is reserved for a much later period, 
when men begin to be bold enough to speculate upon the right- 
ful source and extent of hereditary power — to listen to other 
arguments than those of physical force, and heed other con- 
siderations than those of personal fear. But irregular and 
undefined though they be — they exist long before — and as 
exigencies require, occasionally develope themselves in open 
collision. Centimes anterior to the supposed origin of the 
great political parties of Great Britain, they had been con- 
fronted on the plains of Runnymede, and liberalism had 



14 ORATION. 

achieved perhaps her proudest triumph, when the stern bar- 
ons of old England wrung the assent of a reluctant Plan- 
tagenet to the great Charter of British freedom. 

The necessity for the existence of political parties, lies 
deep in the constitution of human nature. Men differ as 
much mentally as physically. No two individuals of the 
race look or think exactly alike. But as there are peculiari- 
ties of feature common to races and families, so there are 
habits of thought, common to classes and parties. We live 
and act for the future. The mind of man is ever busy, spec- 
ulating upon the events of to-morrow, and as he gives rein to 
his hopes or his fears, so he meets the responsibilities of to- 
day. Some men are ever buoyant with hope, others are con- 
tinually depressed with distressing fears. The whole human 
family assimilate to the one class or the other : and herein 
lies the true secret of perpetual party war. The party of 
fear is the stationary party — the party of caution — the party 
of conservatism and necessarily the party of precedent. The 
party of hope is the movement party — the party of reform — 
the party of progress, and necessarily the party of experi- 
ment. Had the former continually borne sway, the world 
had never emerged from the darkness of the middle ages. 
Had the latter triumphed without prolonged resistance at 
every step, anarchy had been the prize it earned and a worse 
than medioeval darkness, the heritage it left. But in spite of 
all obstacles and all opposition, the world is moving onwards. 
Conservatism always fights a losing battle. History is but a 
record of its continued overthrows, and sad w.ould be the 
story were it otherwise. Time is perpetually refuting its un- 
varying prophecies of evil. The conservative of one age, 
has little sympathy with the policy of his party in the pre- 
ceding, and repudiates, with indignation, its acts if not its 
name. Where then stood the outposts of radicalism, now 
he pitches his tent and vainly imagines that beneath its fold 
a safe covert and an abiding home may be found. 

The stationary party is the party of age — the movement 



ORATION. 15 

party the party of youth. Day by day the strength of the 
former is waning, while that of the latter is waxing. The 
grave is closing over the constituents of the one, while the 
cradle is nursing the elements of the other. It is not pre- 
tended that in point of fact the constituents of the one party 
are elderly men, while those of the other are young men. 
Party relations are dependent upon many circumstances, and 
upon none so much as early education and association. As 
a matter of fact, party feelings and party names are generally 
transmitted by inheritance. But there are wide differences 
in the fold of the same party. The philosophical necessity 
which generates parties, engenders similar distinctions among 
those who fight under the same banner. Both parties have 
their moderate and ultra wings — we may call them their con- 
servative and progress wings. There is frequently but a shade 
of difference between the Conservative of the Progress party, 
and the Progressive of the Conservative party — and more 
frequently the difference is far less than exists between them 
and the other wings of their respective parties. It is strictly 
true that the advance wing of both parties is mainly com- 
posed of young men. 

The mass of men are supposed to be essentially radicals. 
The prosperous, in every community, are comparatively few 
and to the vast majority every change is suggestive of better 
fortune. Hence arose the holy horror of Democracy, which 
even liberal statesmen of past centuries cherished and incul- 
cated. They apprehended the impossibility of preserving 
anything like an equipoise between the conflicting elements 
of society, and anticipated from popular government a suc- 
cession of wild experiments which could eventuate only in 
anarchy. Experience, however, has not realized their appre- 
hensions. America has demonstrated to the world that as 
there is a period in individual life when the boy may be safely 
entrusted with the responsibilities of manhood, so there is a 
period in national life, when a community may be wisely 
committed to the guidance of its own masses. A people prop- 



16 ORATION. 

erly tutored for self government, will voluntarily impose in 
their organic law efficient restraints upon their own progres- 
sive instincts. In the pupilage through which they pass — 
they learn to prize and value those great institutions with which 
they have seen the public weal identified, and though they 
may modify and reform, they would not, if they could, destroy 
them. They may discard the King, but not the executive — 
the titled aristocracy, but not the Senate. Upon institutions 
rather than constitutions they will have learned to rely as 
effectual bulwarks against the rash innovations of radicalism. 
Paper guarantees and constitutional compacts may not alone 
avail. The good faith of communities is not unfrequently 
found, in the hour of need, a slender reed on which to lean. 
In our own country and our own day, we have a notable in- 
stance of the recklessness with which in imagined impunity 
from retribution, a time-honored commonwealth, justly proud 
of a hard earned historic reputation for moral worth, can, ex- 
ulting in her infamy, trample upon her covenanted faith. 
The tyranny of a mob is as much to be apprehended as the 
tyranny of a despot, and the faithlessness of a community, 
as the faithlessness of a king. The only effectual protection 
to individual right, is either in the required assent of an in- 
stitution whose interest it is to defend him from wrong, or in 
the protection of an institution as prompt to resent as it is 
capable to redress his injury. The institution of a standing 
army has been always found a more formidable auxiliary of 
despotism than hereditary prerogative : and the humane 
guarantees of the common law, would have often proved of little 
worth to the unhappy victim of royal suspicion or cabinet 
jealousy, had not his innocence been shielded by the glorious 
institution of a jury of his peers. The administration of 
government developes in a democracy, as elsewhere, phenom- 
ena, the influence of which in modifying its tendencies to 
wild experiment, is not usually properly estimated. Power 
is naturally conservative, as responsibility naturally begets 
caution. Early in the history of a democracy, the progress 



ORATION. 17 

party is invested with the control of public affairs — and gen- 
erally retains possession of power. The responsibility of 
administering a liberal government is thrown upon those who 
are peculiarly interested, to demonstrate the compatibility of 
popular institutions with legislative stability. The prepon- 
derance of their conservative wing and its monopoly of all 
influence in the administration, is the philosophical result. 
Thus, in point of fact, their early ejection from power is a 
triumph of the conservatives in disguise, for it perpetuates 
the ascendancy of cognate sentiments in the councils of a 
party they cannot successfully combat. The radical wing of 
the progress party must always lose ground, while its par- 
ty holds power. In theory, much more than in practice, 
does human nature incline to violent experiment. 

Upon the -other hand, under popular institutions, where 
the tide of public sentiment generally sets steadily against 
them, the conservative party can never obtain or retam 
power, without conforming in a measure to the advancing 
spirit of the age. Their progress wing, therefore, is predom- 
inant in council. In our own history, we have a striking 
illustration of these results. Our political warfare has been 
practically between Conservative Progress and Progressive 
Conservatism. Consequently our party issues have been 
most generally apparently trivial—- and many of our most 
animated political contests seem little more than personal 
struggles for the possession of place. But the insignificance 
has not been confined to professed points of difference in the 
canvass. The exigencies of political warfare require the 
party seeking office to make issue with the powers that be 
upon many questions of temporary State policy. Success, 
therefore, commits to a change to this extent. But upon fun- 
damental principles of administrative policy and actual pro- 
gress, how nearly assimilated do we find consecutive admin- 
istrations of different party affinities. A foreigner unac- 
quainted with the minutiae of our political divisions, would 
certainly err in his conjecture of the party predilections and 
2 



18 ORATION. 

associations of several of our Executives. So little appre- 
hension of violent change in the administration of our gov- 
ernment accompanies the transfer of power from the one 
party to the other, that our most violent political agitations 
produce scarcely a sensible effect upon the sensitive barometer 
of Wall Street. 

The peculiar relations of the State and the Federal Gov- 
ernments, and the rival interests of the several States, mod- 
ify in a great measure our party divisions. Coeval with the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution, radical variances in 
the interpretation of its language developed themselves, and 
scarcely a contested question of policy has arisen since, which 
has not to a greater or less extent necessarily provoked a 
consideration of the legitimate bounds of Federal authority. 
Hence have arisen the Constitutional schools of American 
politics — the Federal and State-Rights. Ostensibly, more 
than really, they have waged our party battles. The princi- 
ples upon which they separated were of too sublimated a 
character to take hold upon the minds of the masses, but the 
position of hostility they assumed, afforded an opportunity 
for the slumbering antagonism of Conservatism and Progress 
to develope itself. Conservatism, early allied with Federal- 
ism, and Progress with State-Rights, and the alliance has 
continued with greater or less distinctness, with the excep- 
tion of occasional temporary ruptures, to the present time. 
It has been an alliance however, not a merger. Collateral 
issues have not unfrequently developed in many of the Fed- 
eral allies of Conservatism, strong progressive sympathies — 
while at the same time they enlisted in cordial co-operation 
with Conservatism the most ardent champions of the rights 
of the States. Upon questions of individual State policy, 
the ultra Federalists and the ultra State-Rights men very 
frequently harmonize. Massachusetts and South Carolina 
in Federal politics are antipodes — while their State constitu- 
tions, in many essential particulars, indicate a remarkable 
harmony of sentiment on the general principles of republican 



ORATION. 19 

government. Almost alone of their sister States, they still 
repudiate the mere numerical basis of representation, and the 
popular election of the Judiciary. South Carolina, to this 
day, withholds from her people a direct vote in the choice 
of Presidential electors. Mr. Calhoun's posthumous work 
is the most elaborate vindication of conservatism yet issued 
from the American press, and it is nothing more than a di- 
gested exposition of the principles he avowed and maintain- 
ed, while in close alliance with the party of progress and an 
honored and efficient leader of the allied forces, during many 
of their most animated conflicts. 

We have as little sympathy with the senseless radicalism 
that makes war upon all established institutions, as we have 
with the antiquated fogyism that worships precedent rather 
than principle. The philosophy of history sanctions the one 
as little as it does the other. The world has progressed in 
spite of both. The mad advocacy of all change by the one, 
has impeded the march of civilization, no less than the per- 
sistent resistance of all reform by the other. The impress 
left upon Europe by the fanatical charlatans of the French 
Revolution may not be effaced in a century. The true 
heroes of history — the genuine benefactors of their race, 
have either led the advance of Conservatism, or stayed the 
advance of Progress. " In medio tutissimus ibis" embodies 
the philosophy of political science. Compromise is a neces- 
sity of our moral, no less than of our physical nature. It 
is the corner stone of political, as faith is of theological sci- 
ence. The politician who modifies no opinion and recedes 
from no position, finds his parallel in the theologian who be- 
lieves nothing of infinity which finity cannot grasp. The 
career of the one is as short and as blank as the creed of 
the other. But there are some matters upon which compro- 
mise is never admissible. There can be no compromise be. 
tween absolute right and absolute wrong : and there ought 
to be none upon questions which have formed the subject of 
negotiation and settlement prior to the institution of an or- 






20 ORATION. 

ganic law. When the public faith is thus plighted, the ex- 
action of change is iniquitous aggression — and its concession 
by the assailed, though robed in the guise of compromise, is 
an unmanly recreancy to duty. 

There is philosophy, if there be demagogueism, in the 
catch words of Young England and Young America. The 
advance of society has been in the past and must be in the 
future, marshalled by young men. Age is not merely con- 
stitutionally averse to reform, but is most generally too much 
engrossed with the cares of private business, to bestow much 
of thought or consideration upon matters pertaining to the 
public weal. The buoyant heart of youth, with its high as- 
pirings and elevated sympathies, gives tone to popular senti- 
ment. Among those who have passed the meridian of life,* 
whose education and habits of thought adapt them to be use- 
ful and influential in the formation of public opinion, com- 
paratively few have either the time or inclination to examine 
and elucidate even the gravest subjects of public policy. The 
thought and consideration which in earlier years they were 
wont to bestow upon the public, is now concentrated upon the 
increasing group who cluster round their firesides- — for whose 
welfare and whose safety it is theirs to bear the primal curse. 
Time was perhaps when with bounding pulse and beating 
heart in the vanguard of reform they would have welcomed 
convulsion and battle. Change had, then, but little of the 
repulsive, for beyond a mere temporary agitation, disturbing 
at the worst the comfort of one generation, a sanguine tempe- 
rament and a buoyant hope descried in the future the amelio- 
ration of social wrong and the dissemination of human happi- 
ness. But, now, all of hope and all of fear are narrowed with- 
in the hallowed precincts of home. Agitation and convulsion 
may endanger the scanty earnings of past labor — or contract 
the rewards of that daily toil tfpon which the nearest and 
dearest of earth are helpless pensioners : and the heart pleads 
feelingly and plausibly against any suggestions of reform 
which may perchance hazard their comfort and happiness. 



ORATION. 21 

It is a weakness leaning to virtue's side — and blasted be the 
irreverent tongue that would reproach or chide the paternal 
solicitude of age. Yet it is a weakness which may only be 
indulged at the ultimate expense of the very objects of an 
over anxious affection. We are too apt to be satisfied upon 
every subject with the results of our own limited observation, 
and coincidences which occur under our own eyes, frequently 
occasion convictions at war with the unvarying testimony of 
others. Youth may lack personal experience, but it has few 
long cherished errors to unlearn. The broad volume of his- 
tory lies open for inspection — and lessons of wisdom may be 
gathered not merely from the individual experience of con- 
temporary seniors, but from the concurrent testimony of cen- 
turies. Be this as it may — it is a fact which we may not dis- 
credit, that the voice of ante-meridian manhood is the poten- 
tial voice in the State. 

Professional politicians as a class are perhaps as little under 
the control of high moral principle, as any other equally 
influential class on earth. Human virtue may always be 
measured when classes are considered by the power of the 
temptation to which they are subjected, and the restraining in- 
fluences by which they are surrounded. He who knew the 
heart of man enjoins the universal daily prayer, " Lead us 
not into temptation." Political life is beset with many temp- 
tations and guarded by few restraints. The wreck of private 
fortune not unfrequently exposes to the pinching3 of actual 
poverty — when disguised in a thousand deceiving forms, the 
tempter unceasingly proffers abundant relief. The coveted 
prizes of place and power, glittering in a false glare, dance 
invitingly before a diseased imagination, always apparently 
within the grasp of a not over-scrupulous ambition. The 
refining influence of female society is withdrawn — individual 
responsibility is swallowed up in the concurrence of a mass, 
and a profligate public sentiment accommodated to the easy 
public virtue of political adventurers, releases from the obli- 
gations of a stern morality and exacts obedience only to a 



22 ORATION. 

scarcely better than Spartan code. Vices which in private 
life are regarded as most detestable, it visits with reprobation 
only when they fail to succeed. Truth is the foundation of 
all moral excellence, but the trade of politics and diplo- 
macy is built upon its antipode. We have no sympathy with 
that depraved public taste whict- delights in unwarrantable 
imputations upon the integrity of those to whom the conduct 
of government is entrusted. To pander to it, is necessarily 
to weaken in the minds of the people that loyalty to consti- 
tuted authority which is the substratum of all social order. 
But we may not overlook or disregard the corrupting ten- 
dencies of the potential influences operating upon political 
leaders. Unrestrained by the Argus-eyed vigilance of an 
intelligent and jealous people, Courts and Cabinets and Sen" 
ates necessarily become fountains of corruption. That vigi- 
lance for the greater part is only steadily and constantly ex- 
ercised by the younger portion of the body politic, and upon 
their virtue and intelligence hang the hopes of every people. 
If there be then in the institutions which have been trans- 
mitted to us from our sires, any thing to justify the high an- 
ticipations they have taught us to indulge — how heavy the 
responsibility which, under Providence, is entailed upon the 
young men of this generation. To their custody, in the hour 
of its sorest trial, is confided the destiny of the Republic. 
Encompassed with difficulties and dangers, it summons all of 
human virtue and human wisdom to extricate it from impen- 
ding overthrow. That man must be smitten with judicial 
blindness who, amid the perils of this crisis — the uprising of 
one great section against the other, can fold his arms in ima- 
gined security, and fondly persuade himself there is no dan- 
ger. " Quern Deus vult perdere prius dementat." God forbid 
that he be wakened from his delusion amid the crash of a dissev- 
ered empire. The effort that might now avail, will be useless 
then. The same ill-omened sound which an excited populace 
rung in the ears of the late dynasty of France, when the un- 
happy monarch proffered the tardy resignation of his trust, 



ORATION. 23 

" II est trop tard" may ring here the knell of Union and 
of Hope. 

Upon the men of this generation rests the solution of the 
great problem of the perpetuity of our institutions. The 
Startling issue may not now be avoided. If disunion must 
come with never less baneful consequences than now, we have 
no right to shrink from it and postpone the evil day, that the 
dreaded stroke may blight the hopes of others. By all the 
manliness of manhood, by all the claims of womanhood, 
by all the teachings of history, by all the intuitions of the 
soul — we are invoked to meet the crisis as becomes, those who 
inherit the blood of '76. The peace of the country — the 
stability of its institutions — the security of property — and 
the sanctity of home, have been too long and too seriously 
imperilled by sloth and indifference. Place hunters and prof- 
ligate politicians have played with success, and almost with- 
out resistance, upon the best and holiest feelings of our peo- 
ple: until the joint heirs of Saratoga and Yorktown — of 
Bunker Hill and King's Mountain, stand confronted on the 
verge of civil war. Even now the trump of the coming bat- 
tle is borne to over-expectant ears, in the breezes that sweep 
from the plains of Kansas. It is time that the masses had 
awakened from their lethargy. The great heart of a still 
united people throbs with anxious foreboding. Upon her 
educated youth the eyes of America are fastened in expec- 
tant hope. One resolute, united effort upon their part can 
avert the storm — can crush and crush forever the demon of 
discord. Will they be true to the sacred trust? 

Addressing, as we do, their representatives from all sec- 
tions of our common eountry, we trust it may not be con- 
sidered inappropriate to have attempted a vindication from 
history and reason of their rightful position in society. To 
you — our brethren — we feel that we may with peculiar pro- 
priety commend the necessities of a distracted country. The 
institution over whose interests you assemble to deliberate, 
assimilates to our glorious Confederacy of States in shedding 



24 ORATION". 

its benignant rays with equal impartiality over the North 
and the South. Entirely disconnected with politics and party, 
it inculcates and disseminates friendly feelings and fraternal 
sympathies among all sections and all creeds. 

For but a little time may you dwell beneath its shadow. 
The startling responsibilities of active life are just before 
you, and an expectant people eagerly await your advent upon 
the grand, arena. You will not come forth mere cyphers in 
the community. Every collegian necessarily becomes the 
centre whence radiates an influence more or less potential 
upon the destiny of millions yet unborn. Shall it be health- 
ful or noxious ? Uncorrupted by political intrigue — unem- 
barrassed by past pledges — unshackled by the self-rivetted 
fetters of long cherished sectional prejudice ; if there be 
aught of hope in the future, that hope hangs upon you and 
such as you. Be ye but true and all is well. The cloud that 
darkens the horizon will but enhance the brightness of suc- 
ceeding sunshine. The storm that threatens now once 
past — what imagination may measure the future glory of the 
Republic. Centuries hence, when a teeming population 
throng the shores of the far off Pacific — when a rich and va- 
ried commerce pours into the lap of the Empire City of the 
distant West the rich treasures of every clime, from ocean to 
ocean the glad anthem of a still united people will ascend 
heavenward — and the prattling lips of infancy will dwell in 
lisping accents on the fame of a time-honored and a time- 
strengthened Union. 



^titrintisra 

A POEM, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE CONTENTION OP THE DELTA KAPPA EPSILON 

FRATERNITY, AT CARUSI'S SALOON, WASHINGTON, D. C, 

JANUARY 3, 1856. 

BY 

JNO. R. THOMPSON, ESQ. 



l$0tm> 



You ask a Poem — it must be confest 

That this is no extravagant request, 

In our poetic and trochaic time 

When " mobs of gentlemen" indulge in rhyme — 

And every critic writing to review 

His neighbour's verses is a poet too — 

Has climbed himself the steep Lycorean mount, 

And done an Epic on his own account. 

A Poem ! why it has indeed been made, 

Of latter days, the merest thing of trade. 

Yet may we marvel at the easy air 

With which the customers their wants declare — 

Write by the post a simple business note 

And order poems as they would a coat — 

Say to the Schneider of the stately song 

" On Thursday fortnight send the thing along." 

And, they might add, be sure that it display 

The very latest fashion of the day. 

For there are reigning modes in verse to choose — 

Each has its hour, and an old-fashioned muse 

Like Goldsmith's, seeking simply to impart 

The dear pathetic lessons of the heart, 

Would be regarded, in the present rage 

For " stunning" novelties, behind the age. 

In poetry, as well as dress, we seek 



28 POEM. 

For something, as the French would say, plus chic. 
Receive not, gentle hearer, with a yawn 
This long sartorian simile I've drawn, 
There's much resemblance, if you did but know it, 
Between the crafts of tailor and of poet — 
Both cut and patch, both do their work by measure. 
And both, alas ! both cabbage at their pleasure ! 
But now the parallel at last to drop 
And once for all, indeed, to " sink the shop," 
Just let me ask for this affair of mine 
To judge it harshly you will not incline — 
If you should find it somewhat badly wrought, 
And rather threadbare as respects the thought, 
The style of fustian, and the scanty wit- 
Beyond all question not a handsome fit — 
If of the puns you cannot see the force 
Nor follow up the threads of the discourse — 
In short, if when you've heard the poem through, 
You cannot say " Mem tetigit acu" 
Pray be indulgent : — neither snips nor bards 
Win all at once their coveted rewards^ 
Stultz's first garment did not gain renown, 
Nor Tennyson's first song the laureate's crown : — 
Call it a failure freely, if you will, 
But have compassion for the poet still, 
And this small favor Pity's self demands — 
Don't throw the poem back upon his hands ! 

I come, in sooth, with no desire to claim 
Poetic honours or the poet's name, 
But with affection, warm and true, for all 
Who join in this, your yearly festival, 
My little wreath of wintry flowers I bring ; 
You'll not reject the humble offering 
Which makes no effort at distinguished meed 
And scarce a poem can be called, indeed, 



POEM. 29 

Unless, with Jourdain's master Aye suppose 
That all is poetry which is not prose. * 

My theme is Patriotism — lofty theme ! 

Long held by moralists in high esteem, 

And much discussed by those who writ and spoke 

In former ages — vide Bolingbroke — 

But voted now an antiquated thing 

By such as haply either speak or sing. 

Perhaps in kindness you may ask me why 

I take a topic so extremely dry, 

'Tis not that I can hope to say a word 

That's new about it — I'm not so absurd : 

Or make the glorious light of genius shine 

Through every page and brighten every line, 

And, subtler alchemy than that of old ! 

Transmute my leaden fancies into gold. 

As soft October sunsets, slanting o'er 

The length'ning levels of a barren moor, 

Convert the poorest ferns and meanest brooms 

Into the semblance of a prince's plumes. 

But that our "primal duties," though aloft 

They "shine like stars," are yet forgotten oft, 

Because on lower things we fix the eye 

And will not look into the spangled sky. 

For this, I would some homely truths recite, 

Not the less excellent that they are trite, 

For this, repeat some humdrum ancient saws 

Touching " the beauty of the good old cause." 

And what is Patriotism ? — shall we go 
To Samuel Johnson, first of all, to know ; 
Since now, in Public Virtue's sad decay, 
Its true significance has passed away. 
'Tis " love of country," you will answer pat, 
Admitted, sir, but tell me, what is that ? 



30 POEM. 

Time was, 'tis long since, when to love the earth, 

With generous loyalty, which gave one birth, 

Involved a wide affinity of love 

For all that rose the natal soil above : 

Not for the dear old mansion-house alone, 

Where, like a dream, his boyish days had flown, 

The breezy hills, the tall ancestral trees, 

The drowsy garden murmurous with the bees, 

Nor yet the path where oft he followed after 

The rippling music of his sweetheart's laughter : 

But for the school where erst he felt the rod — 

The church where he was taught to worship God : 

Then did he treat with a becoming awe 

Religion's temples and the shrines of law — 

An antique honour make his constant guide, 

And ever cherish with an honest pride 

The language, rich in eloquence and song, 

Which once to magic Shakspeare did belong, 

Learned in perfection only as it trips 

In airiest movement from a mother's lips. 

Then widening out his sympathies would reach 

To all who used that noble form of speech, 

And more and more the circle still expand 

Beyond the limits of his native land, 

Till Patriotism, in its largest sense, 

Embraced mankind in its benevolence. 

How well we prospered in the simple ways 

Of those long-vanished, scarce-remembered days, 

Then legislators little understood 

The tricks of craft, and sought the public good, 

Unread in Machiavel, they merely aimed 

At truth and justice in the laws they framed : 

Each recognised his duties to the State 

And strove, as best he might, to make her great, 

And even the humblest with that glow was fired 

Which Burns " in glory and in joy" inspired, 



POEM. 31 

Who only wished, " some usefu' plan" to make 

Not for his own, but for auld Scotia's sake. 

Ah happy age, ah long exploded creed ! 

What novel ethics to thy sway succeed ! 

How changed the scene in legislative halls 

Where through the livelong day hoarse folly bawls, 

And mad Ambition or the love of pelf 

Bids every member labour for himself. 

Our Solons now too often, it would seem, 

Drink deep, but not of the Pierian stream^ 

And nightly gather in well-ordered ranks 

To study Finance in unchartered banks. 

Place and Preferment still make slaves of some 

Who war with Slavery, while others come 

From plotting treason round a Webster's grave 

To break the compact they are sworn to save : 

Discord in Congress rules and " wild uproar" 

Throughout the session daily claims the floor, 

So great the strife that, striking to relate, 

Pacific railways lead to fierce debate, 

While hungry cormorants flocking from the hills 

Deplete the Treasury with their Private Bills : 

And when some luckier plunderer than the rest 

Pilfers his millions from the public chest, 

For some gigantic scheme of wholesale fraud 

There are not wanting hundreds to applaud ; — 

The service calls for silver service fine — 

" Honors are easy" in the silver line — 

And each new Judas to the state is paid 

His thirty pieces for some trust betrayed. 

From public shall we turn to private life ? 

Alas ! what social maladies are rife, 

Where Fashion, decked in costliest Brussells laces, 

Ignores our homebred modes and " native graces," 

And, most unpatriotic jade! impairs 



32 POEM. 

Our love of country with her "foreign airs :" 

Look to the circles of our largest city 

Aping the swells of Europe, more's the pity, 

And showing, in their dinners, routs and mobs, 

A vulgar aristocracy of snobs — 

In vain our simple fathers swept away 

All vestige of the ancient feudal sway, 

In vain they flouted all the useless knowledge 

That England teaches in the Herald's College, 

When each new humbug, swelling with pretence, 

But sadly destitute of common sense, 

Grown rich in selling buttons, pills or flannel, 

Sports flaring red upon his coach's panel 

A fine escutcheon stolen out of Burke, 

stars and garters ! this is awful work : 

Thus they obtain their coats-of-arms ; the dance 

And cooks and sauces they procure from France, 

And, worse than all, as candor must declare, 

Import their morals with their bills of fare — 

So character is served, the truth to tell, 

In every style except au naturel, 

And so " our best society" assumes 

This shape — a filet garnished with mushrooms. 

See next how Fashion dares to set aside 
Our language — source of patriotic pride, 
And makes the good old mother tongue appear 
Like English oak o'erlaid with French veneer. 
Our pensive maidens rarely now employ 
A Saxon term for sorrow or for joy : 2 
The dear one, little versed in Mr. Trench, 
Translates her tender feelings into French ; 
She's enchantee, if told some pleasant news, 
And desolee, if troubled with the blues, 
The heavenly smile that lights her beaming face 
A beau sourire becomes in Fashion's phrase, 



POEM. 33 

And Mariana in the grange would say 
Not " I'm aweary/' but " I'm ennuyee." 
Yet the dear creature who on earth can blame 
When tenderly she murmurs— Que je t' crime, 
That soft confession on the poet's ire 
Falls like wet blankets on a raging fire, 
And, as Belinda's face, with beauties set, 
Belinda's errors caused you to forget, 
Atones in whatsoever language given 
For every female foible under heaven. 

Still Honour be to Woman ! she has shown 

The loftiest patriotism earth has known— 

Not on the hustings claiming equal rights 

With sterner man, ah hatefullest of sights ! 

But when some noble purpose fires the heart 

Or bids the sympathetic feelings start ; 

When War holds carnival, 'mid heaps of slain, 

With Death, on Glory's drenched and crimsoned plain, 

Or Pestilence in darkness walks abroad 

And renders desolate each doomed abode, 

See with what joy her holy presence fills 
A Norfolk's streets or Balaklava's hills ! 
Oh ! if no strain of minstrel can avail 
To hymn the praise of Florence Nightingale, 
My rugged verse how miserably weak 
That nobler heroine's renown to speak, 3 
Who with the Fever waged th' unequal strife 
And bore, in danger's paths, a charmed life ! 
A brighter page her record shall display, 
And every tear that she has wiped away 
Shall crystallize into a brilliant gem 
To glitter in her heavenly diadem ! 

Yes, Honour be to Woman! hers the praise, 
When strife and tumult loud their voices raise. 



1 ? 



34 POEM. 

That piously she turns her moistened eye 
To where our greatest chieftain's ashes lie 
Beneath Mount Vernon's ever sacred sward, 
And seeks from insult and decay to guard 
The holiest spot the sun e'er shone upon — 
The long-neglected grave of Washington ! 

This is True Patriotism — this the spirit 

Which all earth's real Patriots inherit : 

And so the laborer whose humble toil 

Enriches day by day his native soil — 

The merchant prince, whose vision still extends 

Beyond his semi-annual dividends — 

The poet, seekly fitly to rehearse 

His country's honour, and whose lofty verse 

Undying lustre on that country sheds, 

And classic makes the ground whereon he treads, — 

The statesman gazing yet with doubts and fears 

Up the dim vista of the coming years — 

The man of science looking out afar 

Into the welkin for an unknown star — 

These are our patriots — and no work they wrought 

Has ever yet been perfected for naught : 

And if some name shall flash with light sublime 

Across the awful gulf of future time, 

'Twill be no politician's — feeble ray ! 

Quenched always with his own brief, noisy day, 

But that of Maury whose bright, equal fame 

Burns in Orion's belt with steady flame, 

And every where resounds in Ocean's roar 

From "Tampa's desert strand" to Iceland's stormy shore ! 

What though the humbler patriot's name obscure 
No fragrant immortality secure ? 
He lives A Man, and when he sinks to sleep, 
Freedom's fair goddess shall forever keep 



poem. 35 

A watch and ward around his lonely tomb 
Where violets with recurring Aprils bloom ! 

For there's a Goddess whose majestic form 

Still towers above the wreck of every storm, 

Columbia's genius ! let us bend the knee, 

(Not Freedom's self but Freedom's daughter she) 4 . 

Whom to adore is not idolatry. 

With what a dignity she moves along 

Among the nations, fairest of the throng, 

Not Here, with the large and queenly eyes, 

So walked the golden pavements of the skies ; 

Nor silver-ankled Thetis e'er displayed 

The nameless beauty of our western maid. 

But oh ! how more than doubly dear she seems 

Enthroned and sceptred, in the poet's dreams, 

Hegina Pacis, Empress now of Peace, 

Whose realm shall widen as the years increase, 

Her lips o'erflowing with immortal love 

And touched with light descending from above, 

While round her every Muse and every Grace 

Make gay and luminous the courtly place : 

Or as in reverie alone she strays 

Adown the Dryads' pleasant moonlit ways, 

To twine the dewy field flow'rs, fresh and wild, 

Into a garland for Urania's child ! 

Not so when throbs the war .drum thro' the land, 
And foreign foes set foot upon the strand, 
She leaves the myrtle shade and flowery dell 
And flies the proud invader to repel — 
One holy vigil first, beneath the light 
Of friendly stars, she keeps throughout the night, 
Then strips the laurel from her auburn hair 
And firmly sets the gleaming helmet there ; 
Doffs the white tunic and the purple vest 



36 POEM. 

To bind the corslet on her beauteous breast : 

The distaff now is flung aside, and mute 

Hangs the neglected, once rejoiceful lute — 

Or if she touches it, 'tis but to fling 

The notes of battle from the trembling string. 

Oh how magnificently she appears, 

Thus casting from her all a woman's fears, 

Resistless valour in her fiery glance, 

Her soft white fingers closing round the lance, 

And scarlet cheek, thin lip and lustrous eye 

All eloquently speaking Liberty ! 

Were this Divinity, so passing fair, 

No mere ideal creature of the air, 

Did she but live in fleshly guise indeed^ 

And could she go, the country's cause to plead 

Within yon capitol, what noble rage 

Would all her glorious faculties engage, 

As she should tell her more than mortal griefs 

In shame before the country's gathered chiefs ; 

With what grand sorrow would she there lament 

Divided counsels, angry discontent, 

And what majestic, energy reveal 

As thus she spoke in passionate appeal— 

" Oh by the mighty shades that wander still 

Where Glory consecrated Bunker Hill, 

By those who sleep 'neath Buena Vista's slopes, 

By the past's greatness and the future's hopes — 

By every honored, unforgotten name, 

Linked with your dearest Capitolian fame — 

By the proud memories and traditions all 

That live forever in the classic hall 

Where priceless pearls fell fast from Pinkney's tongue 

And Wit's bright diamonds Randolph round him flung ; 

Where listening Senates owned the magic sway 



POEM. 37 

And thrilled to hear the clarion voice of Clay ; 

Where Webster, through all seasons, grandly strove 

'Gainst Fraud and Faction with the might of Jove ; 

And Reason gave you her divinest boon 

In the pure logic of the great Calhoun ; — 

By this august Triumvirate of mind, 

By all the lessons they have left behind, 

By your loved hearthstones and your altar fires 

And by the sacred ashes of your sires, 

Your angry strifes and fierce dissensions cease, 

And bless the country with domestic peace ; 

Guard well the Union— Freedom's last defence 

And only hope of Freedom's permanence — 

Maintain the Constitution— let it stand 

And shine the Pallas of this Western Land. 

So shall Columbia act her destined part 

As patroness of Learning, Labour, Art, 

So shall she usher in the Golden Age 

When War no more shall stain th' historic page, 

When down the glacis childish feet shall stray 

And little urchins on the bastions play, 

When ivy o'er each battlement shall run 

And cobwebs line the chamber of the gun, 5 

While Love's warm beams shall gild the placid isles 

And the blue seas forever sleep in smiles !" 

Thus might the Goddess speak — and it were well 
If upon willing ears such counsel fell, 
Then should the prophecy that Berkeley cast 
Be yet fulfilled, and every danger past, 
Time's noblest offspring truly be its last ! 

Whoe'er has stood upon the Rigi's height 
And watched the sunset fading into night, 
While every moment some new star was born 
From the bald Eigar to the Wettcrhorn, 



38 POEM. 

Has seen, as steadily the airy tide 
Of darkness deepened up the mountain side, 
The glowing summits, slowly, one by one, 
Lose the soft crimson splendour of the sun, 
(Like altar lights in some cathedral dim 
Extinguished singly with the dying hymn) 
Till the last flush would lovingly repose 
Upon the Jungfrau's purple waste of snows ; 
Thus, oh my country ! when primeval gloom 
Shall over earth its ancient reign resume, 
When Night Eternal shall its march begin 
O'er the round world and all that is therein, 
As dark Oblivion's rising waves absorb 
All human trophies, thus shall Glory's orb 
Thy lone sublimity the latest see 
And pour its parting radiance on thee ! 



NOTES. 

1 Unless, with Jourdain's master, we suppose 
That all is poetry which is not prose. 

A slight liberty has been taken with the exposition of the Maitre de 
Philosophie in Moliere's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, who divides written 
composition into verse and prose, not into poetry and prose, as I have 
assumed. " Tout ce qui n' est point prose," says he, " est vers, et tout ce 
qui n' est point vers est prose :" — a proposition to which I can hardly ac- 
cede, in the terms wherein it is stated, since many modern writers have 
given us examples of composition which is neither the one nor the 
other. 



3 A Saxon term for sorrow or for joy. 

If it be objected by the critical reader that in using joy which is of 
French derivation, in preference to that better Saxon word gladness, I 
have here indirectly committed the very offence which I would satirize, 
I can only say that the superior facility for rhyme of the former term, 
just in the place where it occurs, left me no alternative. 



3 That nobler heroine's renown to speak. 

The voluntary errand of mercy on which Miss Annie M. Andrews, 
of Syracuse, N. Y., came to Norfolk and Portsmouth, during the prev- 
alence of the awful pestilence of 1854 in those cities, should long be 
held in grateful remembrance by the people of Virginia, and well enti- 
tles her to be enrolled upon that honorable list of self-sacrificing women 
which includes the names of Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale. 
England has done much in recognition of the services of the latter — 
does not Virginia owe some testimonial for the yet higher, because 
more perilous labors of Miss Andrews? 



LIBRPRi ut- lunurloo 



027 547 868 4 

40 NOTES. 

4 Not Freedom's self, but Freedom's daughter she. 

Mr. Bryant, in one of the loftiest efforts of his genius, has finely im- 
personated Freedom in these magnificent lines — 

Freedom ! thou art not, as poets dream, 

A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, 

And wavy tresses gushing from the cap 

With which the Eoman master crown'd his slave 

"When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, 

Arm'd to the teeth, art thou : one mailed hand 

Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword ; thy brow, 

Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarr'd 

With tokens of old wars. — The Antiquity of Freedom. 

It is in accordance with the striking image here presented, that I 
have chosen to consider the goddess of our liberty as the daughter, 
rather than the person herself, of Freedom. 

5 And cobwebs line the chamber of the gun. 

To such as have read Mr. Tennyson's Maud, this will be recognised 
as but another form of 

the cobweb woven across the cannon's throat 

Shall shake its threaded tears in the wind no more. 

But the conceit is, indeed, the common property of poets, since it may 
be traced back as far as Simonides, in whose Lines on Peace, occurs 
the following passage — ■ 

iv dk otdapoderoLOi Tzopnagtv aldav &payydv 
loot TteXovrai — 



litcrally- 



And in the iron-bound handles of shields, of black spiders 
The webs exist. 



